D
Doug
Guest
Hey all,
I recently suffered a fairly serious biking accident, my first, while not wearing a helmet. I
suffered a third degree shoulder separation and by the grace of God no worse it appears (1
month out).
I was heading north on a beach bike path. No pedestrian shoulder. a concrete wall was to my right
(cordoning off a power plant). Sand was off the left edge of the path.
A family was heading opposite, the parents walking, the kids riding small bikes, with no other
traffic of which to speak. I did not notice the kid at all until a split second before he made his
move. I was doing about 16 mph against a decent head wind. I can't recall if I was in the drops with
two fingers on the levers or on the hoods. As we almost passed, one kid drove directly across my
lane, having swerved through the lane stripes in a whim of play.
It was the wall, the kid, the parents, or braking. In that fraction of a second I hit the brakes too
hard and went head over, my bike flipping with me still clipped to my feet. I was upside down
vertical when my head hit, saw a flash of light, and landed on my back. I somehow rolled over my
right shoulder when landing, causing its injury.
I think my speed saved me from a serious neck injury. If slower, I may not have rotated fully.
Perhaps the bike clipped to my feet also helped me rotate more.
The point of all this:
In researching helmets, I read about the importance of not having protrusions, to minimize the
chance of catching the ground and injuring the neck, the ideal shape being smooth round. In the
case of my accident, I indeed think a helmet with the commonly found pointed rear end could have
been a disaster. If that rear point had caught when I was upside down vertical, my neck may have
been bent and jerked, injuring it seriously. For me there is no question: I don't care about the
better styling of the slick helmets with pointed rears (and sides too). It'll be strictly round
shapes for me.
Doug
I recently suffered a fairly serious biking accident, my first, while not wearing a helmet. I
suffered a third degree shoulder separation and by the grace of God no worse it appears (1
month out).
I was heading north on a beach bike path. No pedestrian shoulder. a concrete wall was to my right
(cordoning off a power plant). Sand was off the left edge of the path.
A family was heading opposite, the parents walking, the kids riding small bikes, with no other
traffic of which to speak. I did not notice the kid at all until a split second before he made his
move. I was doing about 16 mph against a decent head wind. I can't recall if I was in the drops with
two fingers on the levers or on the hoods. As we almost passed, one kid drove directly across my
lane, having swerved through the lane stripes in a whim of play.
It was the wall, the kid, the parents, or braking. In that fraction of a second I hit the brakes too
hard and went head over, my bike flipping with me still clipped to my feet. I was upside down
vertical when my head hit, saw a flash of light, and landed on my back. I somehow rolled over my
right shoulder when landing, causing its injury.
I think my speed saved me from a serious neck injury. If slower, I may not have rotated fully.
Perhaps the bike clipped to my feet also helped me rotate more.
The point of all this:
In researching helmets, I read about the importance of not having protrusions, to minimize the
chance of catching the ground and injuring the neck, the ideal shape being smooth round. In the
case of my accident, I indeed think a helmet with the commonly found pointed rear end could have
been a disaster. If that rear point had caught when I was upside down vertical, my neck may have
been bent and jerked, injuring it seriously. For me there is no question: I don't care about the
better styling of the slick helmets with pointed rears (and sides too). It'll be strictly round
shapes for me.
Doug